1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a method, an apparatus, and a program for generating diagnostic result explanation reports that explain patients' diagnostic results by adding simple explanations.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, diagnostic results are explained to patients after necessary examinations are performed. At this time, physicians explain the diagnostic results while referring to diagnostic images, image observation results generated by observing the diagnostic images, and other test results.
There are cases in which patients who lack sufficient basic medical knowledge cannot fully understand the explanations regarding their diagnostic results that include technical jargon and the like. Further, the amounts of time that physicians spend on such explanations are limited. For this reason, techniques for assisting explanations of diagnostic results that ease patient understanding have become focused on.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040138922 discloses a technique in which reports generated by physicians for medical facilities are referred to and explanatory information for patients are generated. The text, terms, etc. in the explanatory information for patients are changed to simpler or more technical text, terms, etc. according to the comprehension level of patients.
In the technique disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040138922, the expressions within the reports for medical facilities are changed. However, the contents described in the reports themselves are not changed. Therefore, additional information which is not described within the reports cannot be obtained. For example, there are cases in which contents that physicians are assumed to know as medical professionals, such as general knowledge regarding diseases and differences between symptoms among healthy states and diseased states, are not described in the reports. In such cases, patients cannot sufficiently understand their diagnostic results by referring only to the explanatory information generated based on the reports.